Novelist Antonia Angress on deleting 60,000 words from her first drafts
"My best advice is to be okay with writing work that's never going to see the light of day."
This week I am talking to writer Antonia Angress, the author of Sirens & Muses who was recently named one of the NEA's 2024 Creative Writing Fellows and one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35.
Sirens & Muses starts off as a campus novel set at a New England art school before transferring to the New York City art scene during the Occupy Wall Street era and blooming into an exploration of the intersection of home and belonging versus individualism and seeking to stand out. It was named one of the best books of the year by Glamour Magazine and won the Minnesota Book Award.
We covered:
The importance of finding that feeling of being alone with your work
The daily writing goal that keeps Antonia going (spoiler: it’s very small)
How she manages her consumption of ‘internet junk food’
The practice that gets her ready to write
What motivational phrase is on the Post-It note above her computer
“Publishing a book really doesn't change your life... at the end of the day, you're still the same person. You still have the same problems. The joy and the meaning have to be the work itself.”
The part of the writing process Antonia relishes
The specific point in the book-writing process where Antonia focuses on making her sentences pretty
Adapting to the public speaking portion of being a writer
The thing her graduate school professor told her when she was halfway through writing her first novel and having a crisis of confidence
The two things that can happen after her inner critic has told her the stuff she’s writing is no good
How she views her first novel, looking back
The “toxic narrative” about how you have to suffer for your art
“I think this idea that the best work comes out of suffering is really kind of bullshit and harmful.”
Continually working on being OK with resting (especially as an about-to-be mother)
Antonia’s plug for therapy
The novels about motherhood Antonia is reading to prepare for when her baby is born
The pressure on young women authors to be likable, available, and approachable
The two writers Antonia looks to for inspiration on being successful while “resisting the machinations of publicity that can devour you”
Getting better at time management
What it’s like when your husband becomes a Swiftie in his 30s, when you’ve been on board since your teens
Lightbulb moments:
The idea that your first book is your best book is silly—in what other pursuit is the first thing you try going to be your best?
Writing things that you end up deleting is just part of the process—and an important one at that
“I aspire to get to a place where I can be a hermit and let my work stand on its own.”
Specific things we discussed:
Freedom internet blocker
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan and Night Bitch by Rachel Yoder—the two books Antonia’s recently red to get prepped for motherhood
Otessa Moshfegh and Rachel Kushner, her role models for being a successful writer without having to also live your life on social media
The Immortal King Rao by Vahini Vara, which Antonia called a “very entertaining but also very profound novel”
Connect with Antonia:
Listen to Antonia’s episodes:
Antonia Angress, practical matters: “The self-doubt that never goes away, and how to keep writing despite it”
Listen to her other episodes here when they drop on Wedneday and Friday of this week
Listen to past episodes:
Daisy Alpert Florin, practical matters: “Writing in to the abyss,” setting “super low goals” + finding your rhythm
Daisy Alpert Florin, inner stuff: “Cloaking yourself” in fiction + getting over the idea that you don’t have the right pedigree
Daisy Alpert Florin, what’s coming up: “I really do feel that having done the work of raising kids that now really anything is possible for me.”
Nada Samih-Rotondo, practical matters: Writing by feeling vs. knowing, pandemic productivity + the importance of getting out of the house
Nada Samih-Rotondo, inner stuff: Reader feedback as creative rocketfuel, being the only Arab-American kid around + astrology talk!
Nada Samih-Rotondo, what’s next: The joy of going down a research wormhole, a preview of her second memoir + matcha latte mustaches
Chelsey Goodan, part 1: What teens really need from adults + keeping track of inspired ideas + the most delightful way to meditate
Chelsey Goodan, part 2: Balancing ambition with knowing you’re already enough + a super helpful skill-assessment tool
Chelsey Goodan, part 3: Owning your weird self as a way to find your people and your path